Determined to Succeed

A career in public health has taken Jordan Burton ‘10 to the front lines of the pandemic

When Jordan Burton ‘10 was a kid, she wanted to be an astronaut. Then one summer before her freshman year at Georgetown College, a prestigious medical internship in Atlanta introduced her to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the opportunity for a career in public health.

Burton chose a career in public health, and she’s been working at the CDC since 2015. But her current role as a quarantine public health officer perhaps parallels what she might have experienced as an astronaut: discovering new horizons, anticipating disasters, and navigating uncharted territory.

HER MOMENT TO SHINE

In the early stages of the pandemic, Burton co-led a repatriation effort at a U.S. military base: U.S. soldiers and visa holders needed to return home safely, which included a 14-day quarantine when they returned. She remembers the moment she realized that she was the expert in the room — the one whose career had been leading up to this very moment.

“It was an amazing opportunity,” she recalls. “You’re on a military base, everyone is looking at you to tell them how they should do the quarantine process.”

Currently, Burton works in New York City as a senior quarantine public health officer at the CDC’s quarantine station at JFK International Airport. The CDC has 20 quarantine stations at major ports across the United States and Puerto Rico, and JFK’s station is the largest. These stations, and teams like Burton’s that run them, protect Americans against the usual suspects like malaria, botulism, and rabies from imported animals. And since early 2020, COVID-19 is part of that list.

SEARCHING FOR OPPORTUNITIES ON THE FRONT LINE

After completing a two-year CDC fellowship in 2017, Burton spent close to two years in Santa Fe working as a public health advisor. Her primary role was to increase immunization rates and build trust among Alaska Native and Native American populations. She enjoyed the work, especially her work with preventive care, but she became eager for change.

“I wasn’t on the front lines, and I really wanted to be,” she recalls. In May 2019, well before the pandemic, Burton began her work as a quarantine public health officer.

In this role, Burton works to prevent the importation of communicable diseases from abroad and the spread of the disease domestically. She’s a member of the Global Rapid Response Team, and she also trains new CDC quarantine public health officers.

FINDING A HOME AT GEORGETOWN COLLEGE

Burton is passionate about her work, and in particular, helping people take preventive measures to avoid illness in the first place. It was during her summer internship before college that she realized this is what she wanted to do for a living.

“That’s when I realized I could really be a part of this,” she said. “I could help people be healthier at home in order to avoid certain things. When I got to Georgetown, I knew that was the route that I wanted to go, so I asked myself, how do I navigate myself in that way?”

In addition to majoring in biology, Burton, who is originally from Covington, Ky., sought out opportunities for experiences and mentorships to help her reach her goals.

“When I visited campus before becoming a student, I decided that Georgetown was both big enough for me and small enough for me,” Burton said. “It was somewhere I knew I could call home.” In addition to a rigorous academic experience in the biology program, she participated in residence life and helped launch Georgetown College’s step team.

“I really, really enjoyed the overall experience of getting involved around campus,” she said. “It kind of created structure for me. I found that the more structure I had, the more successful I was in my classes.”

Burton also values that her Georgetown professors knew her name and that she could speak with them anytime she needed.

“There was a real investment across the board,” she said of the college community’s dedication to student success. “And that speaks volumes about choosing to go to a smaller school like Georgetown.”

POURING BACK INTO HER COMMUNITY

Another passion of Burton’s is giving back. When she and her sister were kids, they would seek out opportunities to volunteer anywhere they could.

“One day the Red Cross was like, ‘Yeah, y’all can count these brochures,’” she laughed. “It was the best day ever.”

Burton still finds time to “pour back” into the community, as she calls it. In April, she returned to campus as a Leadership Series guest speaker, sharing with the socially distanced audience in John L. Hill Chapel her experiences as a frontline COVID-19 worker. She was joined by Dr. Jerome Manson ’08 who also discussed his experience during the pandemic.

She also has worked to pour back into the Georgetown College community another way: with a scholarship in honor of her late husband, Stephon Burton ‘11. In 2015, Stephon and Jordan moved to New York City, where he was beginning a career in athletics and development at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, and she was beginning the fellowship at the CDC that would kick start her career. A few months later, Stephon passed away.

“That’s what Stephon had always wanted to do,” Burton said of establishing the scholarship. “He had a good experience at Georgetown, and he had always wanted to show his appreciation.”

The Stephon Burton Scholarship was awarded for the first time at this spring’s Academic Honors Day to Micah Cummings ‘22 of Cincinnati, Ohio. Presented by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the scholarship provides a full-time sophomore, junior, or senior who is a STEM major the opportunity to excel and reduce his or her financial burden. The recipient is someone who displays courage, character, and leadership — just as Stephon did.